A/N: There is a song called Shadow Hat by Glenn Gatsby that I wrote a certain scene around that's coming up. You'll know exactly where it goes when you get there. Trust me, you will not miss it. You can find the song in the ATE music playlist on Youtube or you can just look it up. This is one of those instances where I came up with the scene using the song, so it's worth checking out.

Chapter 119: Robopocalypse

"Well then," Computer said, punching a fist into the palm of Courage's paw. "I guess I shouldn't have left that body after all. It looks like I need to teach some rowdy youths why you don't mess with your elders!"

For once Courage wasn't certain if that was the 'super weapon' instincts talking or the 'protect Courage at all cost' instincts, because Computer was ready, willing, and downright eager to make good on his threat. On one hand, Courage did not want to see Computer's damn near suicidal overconfidence backfire on both of them, but on the other...he might actually pull it off. There was no time to find out though. The hoard of living computers was practically on top of them.

All Courage could think to do was grab the severed tube leg off the ground and begin wildly flailing the floppy thing around at the front line of computers. It...actually seemed to hold them off a little.

"Back! Back!" He cried out over and over again, swinging every time one tried to advance upon him. "I have a leg and I know how to use it!"

"You do realize how morbid this is for me, right?" Computer broke in. "It would be like if I started swinging around a dog's severed leg as a weapon."

"You had it in your mouth! You don't get to complain!" Courage yelled, taking another swing at a computer that tried to get closer.

One of them lunged forward and snatched the leg out of Courage's paws faster than he could react. Suddenly weaponless, he chuckled nervously at the murderous machines and took off running. The hoard of computers chased after him, their numerous claws clacking against the floor and creating a distressing racket that spelled doom.

Computer hastily chimed in with, "As a fellow machine, it physically pains me to suggest this, but I think you should look for a way to set off the fire sprinklers. Unless they've started making newer computers waterproof, that should wipe them all out."

"Do I look like I have any fire on me right now?" Courage yelled, arms flailing in distress.

He reached the checkout desk, and more out of desperation than anything, dove behind it. He fully expected the mob of computers to come surging over the top, so when they didn't, he was both surprised and relieved.

His next surprise came when he realized that there was already a person hunkering down behind the desk. The nerdy looking man must have been hiding there since the calamity began, and maybe under normal circumstances a weird glowing blue dog suddenly appearing beside him would not have been particularly concerning, but given what he had likely seen since the robot apocalypse began, things were different now. He screamed and jumped to his feet. Courage winced and tried to warn him, but he wouldn't hear it.

It turned out that it wasn't even the computers that they needed to be worried about. As the man attempted to run, a security camera fixed to the ceiling above the desk swiveled in his direction. The lens glowed an ominous crimson color and fired a beam. The man turned bright, molten red, and the outline of his skeleton became visible. He then exploded...and some of the hot, glowing putty-like goop landed on Courage.

He had to bite back a scream while all Computer could do at this point was laugh helplessly. "Aaand that's another zero for the therapy bill!"

They both had their reaction to the goopy mess that had been a human not even ten seconds ago cut short when the security camera swiveled and took aim at them. Courage just barely managed to jump out of the way as another laser beam was fired and melted a hole in the floor where he had just been. He took off running yet again as laser beams fired all around him. It only let up once he was out of range.

Where had the mob of computers gone? That was his second biggest worry right now.

"Look! Over there! We can get out there!" Computer yelled, pointing toward the back of the building where a short hallway could be seen that ended in a door with a glowing EXIT sign.

Courage made his way over there, nervously looking around for the computers. He took only a single step into the hallway before Computer had him practically dig his feet into the floor to stop him from going further. Alarmed, Courage very quickly noticed what Computer had seen first. Another security camera was hanging from the ceiling above the exit. It was already glowing red and pointing right at them. A little closer and Courage would have become an exploded puddle of goop.

"I guess we're not getting out this way after all..." Computer said, carefully stepping back while the camera tracked their movements.

Back in the store proper, they stealthily made their way down an aisle and came out in a slightly more open area.

"Hold on. Do you hear that?" Computer asked, which was a silly thing to ask because they shared the same ear, so yes, Courage could hear the steadily rising sound of music.

It was at that exact moment that he had to press his paws to his mouth to stop the yelp of alarm that almost escaped his throat. Off to his right, standing before a massive, very expensive looking sound system, was every last one of those computers.

"Is this really the music that they're going to kill us to?" Computer huffed. Outraged, he yelled out at them, "Of course you all have a terrible taste in music! You modern machines are always such hipsters!"

Every single monitor whipped around in their direction before briefly turned back to look at each other as if offended, then they looked back at Courage once more and hissed loudly in unison.

"Computer."

"Yes?"

"Can you please stop antagonizing THE KILLER ROBOTS!"

"I will not apologize for being right!"

The horde of computers leaped at them. The air was filled with angry machinery and Courage once again had to jump out of the way as the attacking computers landed with a crash in one big pile of twitching machinery. One managed to free itself from the top of the pile and jumped down in front of him.

Thinking quickly, Courage pointed and blurted out, "Oh, no! There's a magnet coming at you!"

The monitor swiveled around in something at least resembling panic, and by the time it looked back around again, Courage was long gone.

He turned down an aisle, music blaring through the store. He could hear the clatter of claws not far behind him. Just as he made it to the end of the aisle, a computer skid to a halt in front of him, its claws sending up sparks as it did so. It raised a claw at him and Courage heard a particular sound that he had not heard in a long time. That grinding, screeching noise, like back when Computer's siblings had taken over his regular body and...

Courage jumped out of the way as tube arm shot forward like a grappling hook, elongating in the process. It hit the computer that had been stalking up behind Courage, one that was very likely about to try the same claw attack that would pull Computer out of his head.

Half the CPU of the machine exploded in a shower of microchips. Courage used the chaos to try and double back the way he came, since the coast looked clear for the moment, but as he passed the destroyed computer, a claw clamped around his leg and send him crashing to the floor.

Squinting in pain, he looked back. Somehow the computer was still alive, despite half of its CPU being completely gone. It hissed angrily at him and clamped down even harder on his leg. Gritting his teeth, Courage did the only thing he could think to do. He reached into the exposed CPU of the machine and pulled out a long circuit board still attached by several wires. Grunting, he smashed it against the computer over and over again until it finally stopped moving. He kicked the claw free and stood, circuit board still clutched in his paws.

"D-did you just beat that guy to death with his own motherboard?" Computer exclaimed.

He made Courage drop the circuit board.

"Gross! I touched it!" He yelped, wiping Courage's paws off on his fur.

The computer who had accidentally destroyed its companion advanced on them, gnashing its monitor mouth either in frustration or anger. Courage growled at it, reached down into the dead computer once more, and pulled out a microchip only slightly bigger than his paw. He threw it at the machine like a ninja star and managed to hit the bullseye because it went into the monitor between chomps. There was a spark and the monitor exploded, pelting Courage with bits of plastic and metal.

Computer flinched. "Oof, I felt that..."

The CPU remained suspended on its six spider legs, but now the machine seemed very much blind. It groped around uselessly and Courage used the opening to rush forward and hit the power button. This had the desired effect and the blind computer clattered to the floor.

Breathing heavily, Courage looked around. Another computer scampered into view, but when it saw the carnage, it actually hesitated.

"Y-yeah! Yeah!" Courage puffed between breaths. "You want some too?" He threatened, stomping forward.

The thing hissed at him, seemingly regaining its courage. Courage himself continued to advance upon it. It raised a claw, snapping it open and closed. As it reached for Courage, he simply slapped the claw away.

Finding some hidden strength inside of himself, Courage grabbed the bottom of the computer, heaved it up over its head with a strained cry of, 'RRRRRAAAA!', and threw it with all of his might upward toward the nearest water sprinkler. It hit the ceiling and water sprinkler with a shower of sparks, and that did the trick to set off the fire system. Getting a full blast from the sprinkler long before it could drop back down to the ground, the computer sparked even more wildly and exploded into a million pieces. Computer bits rained down onto Courage, some pieces getting caught in his rapidly wetting fur.

Computer pulled a microchip out, mortified. "Remind me to never make you angry ever again."

The music cut out with a bzzapt since the sound system was no doubt becoming waterlogged. Already the water was halfway up to Courage's knees. He sloshed his way back out into the open area and found all of the remaining computers lying deadened in the water.

A particularly large bit of exploded computer floated past. Computer grimaced at the sight. "GPUs are not meant to bend that way..."

Courage let out a long breath, just happy that the insanity was over for a little bit.

As Computer eyed up even more floating bits of machine carnage, with complete seriousness he said, "Okay, you know what? Just for the record, if you ever decide that you're going to murder me, can you at least have the courtesy not to use my own insides as the murder weapon?"

Courage ignored him and pushed his way through the water back toward the hallway with the fire exit. Unfortunately, the security system was still up and running and the camera guarding the hallway was well out of the way of any sprinklers. They were going to have to find another way out of there.

As Courage turned around to go check the front of the building with the hope that maybe the garbage truck had lost interest in them, Computer stopped him and said, "Hold up. What's going on over there?"

They could see the light of an unbroken computer monitor flickering on and off. Its legs were twitching with life.

"It shouldn't be doing that." Computer muttered out hesitantly.

They heard a splash and watched ripples of water expand outward from one of the aisle. Courage felt himself tense up, ready for anything.

The computer he had smashed up dragged itself into view, motherboard still attached by a few wires floating in the water behind it. One by one, all of the waterlogged computers began to rise back up onto their many feet. They sparked and sizzled, but they were still very much ticking. Even the bits of exploded computer were starting to buzz and twitch in the water.

"Oh, great." Computer quipped, crossing his arms. "It's a zombie robot apocalypse too, isn't it?"

The twitching horde of zombie computers let out a buzzing, screeching sound and lunged at them once more. Courage took off running for the front of the building. Garbage truck be damned, they were getting out of this death trap!

Much to his dismay, the truck was still there and waiting for them. It seemed to know exactly why they were back and chomped gleefully. Courage grabbed a high tech toaster off the nearest shelf and it was not at all happy about that. He could feel it heating up under his arm, sizzling with every drop of water that landed on it, but he wasn't going to be holding on to it for much longer. He jumped up onto the display set up in front of one of the big windows and tossed the toaster. It went hissing and smoking through the glass. He jumped out after it and took off running down the sidewalk, knowing full well that the garbage truck would be after them in seconds.

Indeed, he heard an almost angry roar of its engine. Daring to look over his shoulder, he could see it quickly catching up. Even worse...the zombie computers had hitched a ride and were clinging to the sides and roof of the thing.

"Oh, come on!" Computer yelled between puffs for air. "That's just not fair!"

Courage turned down an alleyway, and while it was just wide enough for the garbage truck to fit through, it still needed to slow down to make the turn into the much narrower space.

Of course, just when it seemed like they were going to put some distance between them and the attacking truck, they were once again thwarted. Ahead of them a huge, metal dumpster rumbled to life and 'hopped' out in front of them, completely blocking the way out of the alley. It flipped open its double lids and the garbage bags inside exploded into a fireball.

"You have got to be kidding me." Computer groaned, shoulders slumping in disbelief.

It spat a fiery trash bag at them and they were forced to turn back to escape the barrage. It didn't matter much though because the garbage truck was slowly advancing upon them from the other end. Several of the computers jumped off and scuttled toward them.

Stuck between the literal trash fire, the chomping garbage truck, and sparking zombie computers, what could they do?

Courage clenched his fists helplessly. "Whatever happens, don't let them separate us again." He told Computer, hoping that since he now knew what to expect that maybe there was a way he could prevent himself from being downloaded against his will.

"If they know what's good for them, they will not try that again." He assured Courage. "Unless these uppity children want me to beat up even more of them. You should have heard that guy cry when I shoved him into the Recycle Bin folder, right before I emptied it."

The computers circled them, hissing and snapping their claws. Thankfully, they did not try to remove Computer like before. Instead, one simply picked Courage up, clattered over to the garbage truck, and unceremoniously tossed him inside. Just as he landed on top of a squishy garbage bag, he saw the 'jaws' of the truck snap shut and his own blue glow became the only source of light.

The garbage truck started to move again. Now it rumbled along at a much more leisurely pace. Where it was going, no one could say.

Courage blinked in the low light. He could see the same people from before, spread out all around him. Terrified faces who did not know what to make of the strange, glowing dog who had joined their unhappy predicament.

He let out a sharp breath. "I guess we're going to find out where they're taking everyone after all."

Computer looked over at a man buried up to his neck in garbage bags. He leaned in a little closer and asked, "First time?"

End Of Chapter

A/N: In all the years I've been writing this story, I think this chapter is the one I've had the most fun writing. It probably shows. LOL